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So, whenever I mention to another student that I'm an operator for CSS (after I explain what that means, that is) I end up hearing all these horrible stories about how the tapes for their class were always awful or the projectionist never got things right or *whatever*. So here, in public for all to see, is an anecdotal explanation of exactly how and why such things happen.
Today, I was to start a new series--the operator who had this class before has gone home for the rest of the summer. I double- and triple-checked my paperwork today, to be sure that I wouldn't get anything wrong. And I set off to walk down to the classroom a full 45 minutes before the class was to start, which meant that I arrived with 20 minutes to figure out the set-up of the building and room (which I'd never been in before), set up the equipment, and otherwise prepare.
So I arrive, look things over, get myself some water, set up the camera, make sure everything's working properly, and then wait. At 5 til 6, I double-check the paperwork to be sure I have the time, room number, and date correct. At 5 *after* 6, I repeat this process a bit more nervously. At 10 after six, a professor appears, and I go out and cheerfully greet him by the name on my paperwork. He looks at me like I'm crazy.
"Oh, I'm sorry--that must be the name of the sponsor," I chuckle. I get that quite a bit. Then, because he seems so perplexed by my precense: "This is Landscape Architecture 498, though, right?"
Again, no go. He tells me this is some totally unrelated class.
"Oh." I'm getting nervous. And he says he's not supposed to have an operator for this class, either. Shit. So he tells me where I ought to be able to find the professor I'm looking for... that doesn't work. I look for an office to talk to, and eventually end up having the guy in the Architecture library look up the class for me on the course catalog. The listing says the class is in Gowen 201, not Gould 322, as my paperwork said.
Raging under my breath, I swim through the heat over to Gould. I'm more than half an hour late, but the little old professor in hawaiian shirt and glasses with rhinestones in the corners just says he's glad I'm there. I open the cupboards to find that, of course, there is no camcorder in this room. So I run back to Kane, unlock the two sets of doors it now takes to get to our office, and retrieve (with the help of one of the office guys) a camcorder set and tripod, then return to Gowen.
I make a valiant effort to set up the camcorder as quickly and quietly as possible, but am hampered (and horrified) by the lack of a monitor. So I have to get up and peer in the view finder any time the prof switches to talking about a new slide or something. And I can't test the audio without a monitor, either, which sucks because the prof doesn't use a mic. And the room is big. And I can hardly hear him sometimes. But there's nothing I can do about it.
So yeah. That's my little rant about media center tapes. So the next time an operator screws up in your class, or the video is crappy... just think of how *easily* everything goes wrong, with nothing at all that the op can do.
Except go in tomorrow and bitch about how the paperwork people screwed up my life. THAT I can and will most certainly do.
Today, I was to start a new series--the operator who had this class before has gone home for the rest of the summer. I double- and triple-checked my paperwork today, to be sure that I wouldn't get anything wrong. And I set off to walk down to the classroom a full 45 minutes before the class was to start, which meant that I arrived with 20 minutes to figure out the set-up of the building and room (which I'd never been in before), set up the equipment, and otherwise prepare.
So I arrive, look things over, get myself some water, set up the camera, make sure everything's working properly, and then wait. At 5 til 6, I double-check the paperwork to be sure I have the time, room number, and date correct. At 5 *after* 6, I repeat this process a bit more nervously. At 10 after six, a professor appears, and I go out and cheerfully greet him by the name on my paperwork. He looks at me like I'm crazy.
"Oh, I'm sorry--that must be the name of the sponsor," I chuckle. I get that quite a bit. Then, because he seems so perplexed by my precense: "This is Landscape Architecture 498, though, right?"
Again, no go. He tells me this is some totally unrelated class.
"Oh." I'm getting nervous. And he says he's not supposed to have an operator for this class, either. Shit. So he tells me where I ought to be able to find the professor I'm looking for... that doesn't work. I look for an office to talk to, and eventually end up having the guy in the Architecture library look up the class for me on the course catalog. The listing says the class is in Gowen 201, not Gould 322, as my paperwork said.
Raging under my breath, I swim through the heat over to Gould. I'm more than half an hour late, but the little old professor in hawaiian shirt and glasses with rhinestones in the corners just says he's glad I'm there. I open the cupboards to find that, of course, there is no camcorder in this room. So I run back to Kane, unlock the two sets of doors it now takes to get to our office, and retrieve (with the help of one of the office guys) a camcorder set and tripod, then return to Gowen.
I make a valiant effort to set up the camcorder as quickly and quietly as possible, but am hampered (and horrified) by the lack of a monitor. So I have to get up and peer in the view finder any time the prof switches to talking about a new slide or something. And I can't test the audio without a monitor, either, which sucks because the prof doesn't use a mic. And the room is big. And I can hardly hear him sometimes. But there's nothing I can do about it.
So yeah. That's my little rant about media center tapes. So the next time an operator screws up in your class, or the video is crappy... just think of how *easily* everything goes wrong, with nothing at all that the op can do.
Except go in tomorrow and bitch about how the paperwork people screwed up my life. THAT I can and will most certainly do.
